Facade mesh: 145 or 160 g/m² and how many rolls
Mesh is the cheapest line in a facade estimate and the most common cause of cracks when the wrong one is used or it is laid wrong. Three rules and a count for 100 m².
Why alkali-resistant
The adhesive and base coat are cement-based, and cement creates an alkaline environment. Ordinary glass fibre breaks down in it within a year or two: the mesh still looks fine, but the strength is gone, and the facade cracks along the slab joints. Alkali-resistant mesh is coated and keeps at least half its strength after the alkali test — that is its key data-sheet figure. Only this kind goes on a facade; interior “painter's” mesh does not belong here.
145 or 160 g/m²
Weight per m² means thread thickness and tensile strength. 145 g/m² is the standard for the base coat over insulation and what most facade systems work with; our 50 m² roll costs 50 ₾. 160 g/m² is stronger and slightly stiffer; we use it on the plinth, the ground floor, corners at entrances — wherever impact is likely; a 50 m² roll is 61.40 ₾. Using 160 on the whole facade is no mistake either: the difference on 100 m² is about 35 ₾. Armour mesh of 320 g/m² goes where impacts are regular — schools, car parks, the zone by a gate; it is bought separately, and in such places we more often lay two layers of 160 wet-on-wet, an option the system manuals allow.
How to lay it
Mesh is not laid dry on the insulation or pressed on top — it is embedded in a fresh base coat 3–4 mm thick so that it sits in the middle of the layer, then trowelled over. Overlap the sheets by at least 10 cm; at corners wrap 15–20 cm onto the adjacent face or fit a corner bead with mesh. At the tops of windows and doors add 200×400 mm diagonal strips at 45°, two per opening head: stresses concentrate there, and without them diagonal cracks appear.
Count for 100 m²
Consumption with overlaps is 1.11 m² of mesh per m² of wall, plus 5 % for cutting and diagonal strips: 100 × 1.11 × 1.05 = 117 m² — 3 rolls of 50 m². For 200 m² — 234 m², 5 rolls. If the plinth and ground floor get two layers, add their area once more. Corner beads with mesh 100×100 mm, 2.5 m long, are counted from the geometry: external corners of the building plus the reveal edges, times 1.05, divided by 2.5; on a 10×12 house with eight windows that is about 19 pieces — one box of 50.
What else is in the base coat
- Base-coat adhesive under the mesh — 4 kg/m²; we take the compound of the facade system the build-up is designed for.
- Starter profile, window connection profiles and drip edges — from the system supplier.
- Primer under the decorative render — only after the base coat has dried, not earlier than 3 days.
The calculator counts rolls and corner beads from the area and the number of openings; mesh is sold by the roll.